Tephrosia onobrychoides

A low growing forb with a woody crown and taproot with several stout stems usually reclining but never stiffly erect. The main leaves are 8-22 cm long with 13 to 25 linear-oblanceolate leaflets with hairy petioles and rachis.

Seeds should be scarified and given 10 days of cold/moist stratification before planting. They deteriorate quickly in storage. Seeds benefit from innoculation at planting time (Steffen 1997). Seeds average approximately 33,000/lb. Seeds ripen from the beginning of July to September. There are an average of 5 seeds per pod ranging from between 1-9. Seed burro screen size 12/64 > 0/64 x 3/8.

Desirable to cattle as forage. Seeds have been found in the stomachs of bob-white quail and wild turkey. Cattle are reported to eat young growth.

A warm-season, long-lived, shrub-like, legume that spreads by seed and a strong taproot with many branchs. The basal stems become woody with age, and the plants are quite drought resistant. It is an excellent soil builder and source of nitrogen. The roots contain rotenone and were used by the American Indians to make fish poison. It is common on sandy soils of the western gulf coast. It is found in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Sandy soils, prairies.